Ok,

I started out as an investor in 2003. I focused only on the preforeclosure market. My goal was to buy homes at a discount from distressed owners, do repairs and improvements, and keep the properties as rentals.

My personal understanding of investing from my own point of view is, find a home below market value that needs work but is livable according to local inspections, market to renters, make all repairs and improvements with positive cash flow from rental income, sell after 2-3 years. I repeated this process with a larger property.

In brief, my goal was to simply make sure that the cost of my financing was covered by the amount of rental income coming in each month.  

Based on my experiences the language of residential REI includes some basic terms:

preforeclosure, foreclosure, bank owned/REO, tax sale, distressed homes

notice of default

marketing/ locating distressed homes

home improvements, handyman, contractors, rehab

cashflow

standard renting, lease w/option to buy

property management

exit strategy

When I work with an investor as an agent these are the terms that we talk about most. Most of my buyers are rehabbers who want to buy a property at about 65% of ARV, complete a the rehab project in 6-9 months while marketing the completed project, and sell ASAP. I try to guide them towards purchasing rentable rehab projects to ease the pain of monthly payments.

When I invest for my own portfolio these are the terms that I am constantly reviewing before, during, and after my decision to purchase something. I look for 65% ARV, a livable/rentable unit, tenants who might be candidates for lease w/purchase option, if not I will go month to month only, my time frame is 2-3 years.

I totally agree!

All investments produce cash flow if youre a 100% cash buyer, right?  LOL